Just Plain Stuffed (Plus a Quilting Update)

A few weeks ago I attended another quilt retreat at Homeplace Bed & Breakfast (SC). As always it was a lot of fun, food, laughter & a good time spent with friends. I made my first 'big girl' quilt.

It's a king size! I used some fabrics that were gifted to me & some I had gotten at garage sales over the years. I finished the top at the retreat then had one of the quilting ladies there, quilt it on her long arm machine. She did a beautiful job! It's 108" x 112" & there was NO WAY I was going to tackle this behemoth! The pattern is called "Broken Star", a variation of a Carpenter's Star.from a booklet published by Debbie Maddy of Calico Carriage Quilt Designs.

Close up of center star.

Once I finished w/this I decided to make a laptop quilt out of some vintage reproduction fabrics I had in my stash. Pic is sideways but you get the idea. It's called a ribbon box quilt, free pattern from Coud9 Fabrics. It is 56" x 62".

Since I got home I've finished up on my Christmas Table toppers that I will be using as a lining for baskets of goodies to give away this year.

While at the retreat my sewing machine wasn't working very well & I had neglected to take my Featherweight. My friend Debbie (the enabler) kindly loaned me one of hers to use. Otherwise, I would have been twiddling my thumbs the whole time.

Now I have to get my mid arm machine (another post entirely) set up so I can get all these projects quilted & bound before Christmas time rolls around.

On another note, I actually planted a few things in my garden beds here in the city. As usual it is proving that only about 3 or 4 hours of sunlight is NOT enough to produce prolific results.

String Beans & carrots in the pot.

Squash Zucchini, Cucumbers, more carrots & marigolds in front.

Onions taken over by weeds.

I had waited way to late to plant the onions & scallions so most just died. I still have a couple at the very back of the bed, we'll see if they hang on. Too darn hot for them.

The squash & zucchini have lots & lots of blooms but never product any fruit. No pollination happening & I'm not doing it by hand. One of our neighbors has gotten bees but their scouts haven't come down to visits. Sooooo, since they aren't making baby squash I decided to stuff some of the blossoms.

Cheese mixture in bag.

Decent sized blossom. Most were smaller than this.

Stuffed with cheese mixture.

All stuffed & ready to fry.

I picked & stuffed yesterday & as the last pic shows, I had a bit of cheese left over so I picked a few more this morning & finished up the cheese. Will fry them up tonight using a tempura type batter. We've had these before & they are delicious!

Well that all that been happening around here ... until next time.

p.s. I have been scrounging the Internet looking for this discontinued fabric.

It's called Anastasia by Robert Kaufman (orange, black & gold colors). If you have some in your stash or see any for sale, please let me know. I'm more than willing to pay for it. 

Easter 2017

Went to the country last weekend. It was Easter & as it turned out, our first mowing of the year. I got up there on Thursday & decided to go ahead & get a head start on the mowing. Greg came up early on Friday to finish up. In one of our fields there is a new (to us) weed.

It's an ugly little thorny bush that you can't pull up & after it's mowed down it looks like some sort of bird has met it's demise.

My Dad said he hasn't seen it before but it's in almost all the fields. Anybody know what it is?

Update: Thistle! Kill it!

Went out to the garden to open up the shed to let the breeze blow through.

I had left a bag of blood meal in one of the buckets under the back lean to & something must have thought it was food. Doesn't appear they liked it after mauling it, as most of the contents were still intact.

And woo hoo, my asparagus is growing!  I planted 15 crowns & all but 2 are showing signs of life.

Greg had brought a load of compost from the city property & as I was using it to fill in the cinder block holes I looked down & saw this on one of the crowns. A stick was put in by each crown so I could tell where they were located.

Isn't that just the cutest little (& I do mean little) thing?

Had a few minor projects to get done in the barn, like hanging blinds, installing handles & locks on doors, etc. As Greg was walking back & forth from the barn to the house he happened to notice this in the grass right by our steps!

It's a timber/canebreak rattlesnake. He was a young one, just 2 buttons. He was 'relocated'.

The next day this guy came strolling across the field.

Not poisonous but if you get too close he will snap your fingers off. He can reach his neck out several inches, as in 6 or more! He is kind of pretty though. After the photo shoot, we let him meander on his way.

Then also noticed these guys by one of the doors on the house.

Why do they always build their nests in high traffic areas? I let them stay if they are out of the way but these were too close for coming & going comfort. They were 'disposed' of as well.

Sorry this post is such a creepy crawly one but that's sometimes life in the country. Here's a couple of feel good shots to leave you with.

Featherweight(s) & Christmas Gifts

I just realized that I've never posted about my new obsession - Singer Featherweights. My friend Debbie (THE ENABLER) introduced me to them a couple of years ago. Here's the Wikipedia link: Featherweight Sewing Machine. And, here's a pic of one of mine (standard size stapler there for size comparison).

They are the cutest little machines weighing in at about 11 pounds making them the 1st true portable sewing machines. But, what I like best about them is that they are workhorses! I started looking on Craig's List & lo & behold came across a guy selling 2 for a great price last August (2016). I bought them & once I got them home found out that one was made in 1935 & the other in 1950. I stowed them until further notice. Then "The Enabler" decided to host a Featherweight only Retreat this past February so I decided it was time I learned how to use this little gem.

Group Photo

Debbie & another lady taught a session on how to clean, oil & lubricate. I discovered there was a problem with my 1950 but pulled out the 1935 one & it ran just fine. I think it sews so much better than my new (cheaply made) Brother that I bought a few years back. Yes, you have to oil & lube it on occasion but I think it's well worth it. I eventually acquired a 3rd one but I'll post on that later.

While at the FW retreat I decided to go ahead & get a head start on some Christmas gifts. I always plan on making friends small handmade items but always seem to run out of time. I got a few table throw tops made.

These will be quilted & then gifted to former co-workers/girlfriends for Christmas this year. For two of them, I decided to add a few more blocks for a lap quilt for a long time friend who absolutely loves Christmas.

I had started a project several years ago that I am bound & determined to finish this year.

This is one of 3 larger lap tops that I've made (2 for different friends & 1 for me). They are made out of old conference shirts that we all had to wear during shows. 

The shirts were changed out & a new color was introduced for new conferences. They are a heavy twill fabric & very hard to work with. Especially when trying to join seams. I cut up each shirt, then cut them down for piecing the star blocks. I started sewing them on my Brother but finished on the 1935 FW. I sure wish I had that FW when I started these blocks because it sewed through the seams like butter.

I still need to quilt all of these pieces & will start on that next month. We have another retreat coming up at the end of this month & I plan on making a Queen size quilt while there. I'm currently obsessing over fabric choices & placement for that. Will post on that later.

Birthdays & Moving In - Garden Shed

A week or so ago was my Dad's 78th birthday. My sister & I (along w/our sweet husbands) decided to cook a surprise lunch for him & his church members. We served Boston Butts, Potato Salad, Green Beans, Mac & Cheese, Salad, Rolls & of course cake & brownies. He was very happy & yes, even surprised.

We also gave him a gate alarm for his place up in the country. Like us, he has a very long driveway & sometimes people show up unannounced. With the gate alarm he will be able to hear them coming before they get up to the house.

Last Friday would have been my Mama's 80th birthday. I was thinking about a distant relative recently & thought to pick up the phone & call her with a question that only she would have known the answer to. Sad to think there are so many questions that will remain unanswered because there is no one left to ask. Sure do miss her.

This past weekend we finally finished the Garden Shed & was able to start moving in. I was originally just going to paint everything white because that was the paint that I had leftover from other projects. It was waaay too white! Didn't want to go to the store for a small can of colored paint so I looked around & found a tube of blue Easter egg coloring. It was too blue. I had some black acrylic that I added which toned it down to this very soft grey/blue color. Fine by me & I didn't have to make a trip to town.

I hope to have plenty of room for gardening things, paint supplies, canning jars, as well as Christmas Decor. We'll see just how long it takes to fill er up. Oh & still need to paint the back doors.

p.s. We also got asparagus crowns planted but didn't get a pic of the beds. Not much to see but I should take one just for documenting sake. Now to wait the 3 years it takes to be able to harvest & eat. That is, if they survive.....

Garden Shed Update

Many may remember that we bought a Garden Shed waaaay back in December 2013 (Garden Shed Delivery). We have worked on it here & there (mostly there) over the past 3 years (yikes 3 years go by fast!).

We wired it, installed press board walls, added a shed roof on the back in early 2015. Then it sat while we worked on the barn. We decided to finally get it done over Christmas break 2016. We added flooring & trim & had intentions of being finished but we ran into a couple of electrical problems. Got those fixed & last weekend we finally finished it. Well, I still have to paint but, after painting it will be ready to move in. Here are a couple of pics:

West End

East End

I know not many garden sheds have pretty laminate flooring but it was very cheap (the lowest price of any flooring, even vinyl, at the local big box store). Plus, it was a whole lot easier to install.

Ceiling Fan - found in attic - clearance sale over 4 years ago.

Left of Back Door

Right of Back Door

The tools are hanging on slatboard that Greg had for many years. Someone gave it to him & he thought, "I will be able to use that some day". He lined his office walls with it & had some left over which we used here. I couldn't resist going ahead & hanging tools & shelves on it even though I will have to remove in order to paint. 

I have a lot of stuff ready to move into it & I am promising myself to not take 3 years to get it painted! Will post more pics as that gets done.

He Wasn't Invited ....

But he showed up anyway. BP (Bi-polar for those that may remember) cousin let his cows into the fields to graze whatever was left from the last growing season. Mr. Bull here decided he had had enough of the girl cows & the grass looked greener on our side of the fence. He found a way in & decided to stroll around for a while.

Thank goodness he didn't actually take a bite of this little pine.

He is a fine specimen.

Standoff

He wasn't aggressive but Nelly didn't like the looks of that big thing. We left her on the screened porch so she wouldn't try to chase him off & get trampled. He finally had enough & eventually found his way back out. Gotta get my Dad to talk to his relative about fixing the area he got in.

In other news, the cranes were migrating. It's funny, you can hear them coming waaaay before you see them. They fly very very high but I was able to get just one shot that actually shows them looking like cranes. You have to biggify it to see.

My orange tree produced a few (& I mean very few) oranges this year. It was loaded with blooms but only produced 8 oranges. I thought they might be on the sour side but am happy to report that they are quite tasty.

A quick shot of the prime rib we had for New Years dinner. We froze 1/2 of it for later eating.

And last but definitely not least, here's Nelly in her Christmas sweater. She doesn't look too happy about it but she didn't mind it at all. Although it is a bit snug so she's on a diet now.

Healthy Vegetable (not) & My Creative Side

I love vegetables, I really do. In raw form, steamed, stir fried, baked, etc. Broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, squash, zucchini ... you get the picture. But sometimes you see a recipe & think to yourself, wow that sounds good.

I had a resolution for this year to only cook recipes that had been tried & true from friends, books or magazines. It seemed in 2016 that I tried too many Pinterest recipes that failed. Most times an ingredient was missing or the wrong amount was specified. The pictures looked beautiful but somehow it didn't taste even 1/2 as good as it looked. However, I saw this recipe for cauliflower patties that I really wanted to try.

Like with mashed potatoes, I usually always have leftover cauliflower. With potatoes I make a twice baked potato casserole or patties. So I decided to try the cauliflower patty recipe but didn't follow the instructions exactly. For instance, the recipe called for 2 eggs but when I broke my eggs they were both double yolks. I said ehh, I'll just add a few more bread crumbs & a little extra cheese. See, that's where the healthy vegetable becomes not so. I patted them out & fried (so not healthy again) them in a little oil. They were delicious! We had extra so I've frozen a couple to see how they stand up.

As a homage to Mama Pea committing to being creative this year I wanted to share a wreath I made just before Christmas.

It's made with a pool noodle & canning rings! I wanted it a little bigger than the instructions called for so I enlarged & used more rings. It is quite heavy. Also, the extra weight caused it to sag a little & become more oval but I still like it. I have great plans to get some more quilting done this year & to finish a few of my UFOs that are in my drawer. I'll post as I get around to them, hopefully.